DPS arrests 3, seizes $330K worth of marijuana

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested three people and seized more than $330,000 worth of marijuana in two traffic stops on Interstate 40 in Carson County, Trooper Gabriel Medrano said Thursday.

About 9:05 a.m. Wednesday, a trooper stopped a 2011 Ford passenger car four miles east of Conway for speeding, and while conducting the traffic stop the trooper suspected the driver, Aaron A. Grove, 29, of San Carlos, Calif., might have been taking part in some kind of criminal activity, though Medrano did not specify what triggered the trooper’s suspicion.

Troopers searched the vehicle and found five plastic trash bags in the trunk of the car containing 50 vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana totaling 58 pounds, Medrano said.

Grove was arrested and booked into the Carson County jail on a third-degree felony marijuana possession charge. The seized marijuana has an estimated value of $313,490, Medrano said. The drugs allegedly were being moved from San Carlos, Calif., to Little Rock, Ark., Medrano said.

The second seizure took place about 10:55 a.m., when a trooper pulled over a 2003 Subaru Forester for a signaling violation about seven miles east of Conway, Medrano said.

During the traffic stop, the trooper became suspicious that driver Tyler Richardson Diaz, 45, of Santa Monica, Calif., and passenger Laura Marie Doyle, 53, of Burnsville, N.C., might have been doing something illegal, and a search of the vehicle yielded 14 vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana inside a package wrapped like a Christmas present in the cargo area of the vehicle, Medrano said.

Diaz and Doyle were arrested and booked into the Carson County jail on state jail felony possession of marijuana charges, Medrano said.

The drugs were allegedly being transported from San Francisco to Asheville, N.C., he said.